Empowering Robots Improving robot intelligence and autonomy, especially multi-agent systems ranging from small teams of robots to large numbers of simple agents.
M A r k e r S A n d M i l e S to n e S 1995 Learning Agents Center established 2001 Applied Robotics Club is founded 2014 Volgenau School of Engineering hosts DC regional FIRST Robotics
Meet Minibot:
Te Little Robot Tat Can When disaster strikes or dangerous work needs doing, humans look to robots for help. That’s why undergraduate engineering students at the Volgenau School of Engineering are building robotic systems of the future today.
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Minibot, a custom designed and 3-D printed robot, was created as a part of a Volgenau senior design project. (Courtesy photo)
manipulated with virtual reality gear by amateur users who have little or no training.
Consider the cleanup after a meltdown of three Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in Japan in 2011, which seemed like a perfect task for robots to prove themselves. But many challenges made the chore too difcult. The robots used at the site couldn’t climb stairs or ladders, navigate the debris-ridden areas, or pick up tools. And the robot operators were specialists in nuclear cleanup, not robotics, so by the time they learned how to control the robot helpers, much of the damage was done.
Standing 18 inches tall, Minibot’s proportions mimic those of an average human. The robot moves on six wheels for stability and its arms end in claw-like pinchers that allow it to pick up and hold objects. The real innovation, however, comes with the user interface. Because Minibot is kinematically scaled and includes haptic feedback, the operator feels and sees what the robot feels and sees.
A system like the award-winning senior design project Apparatus for Remote Control of Humanoid Robots (ARCHR) and its little robot “Minibot,” could make a big diference. Minibot, a pint-size humanoid robot, weighs less than fve pounds and can be controlled and
“We chose this design for its agility and fexibility,” says Martyna Bula, one of the members of the senior design team. “We used AutoCAD for the design, did the code in open source so anyone can use it, and printed the parts with a 3-D printer.”
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